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“What are you doing here?” she asked herself aloud.
He’d either tracked her down, or he was going to be her tenant for the next three months. Either option was great with her.
She spun around to go outside and caught her reflection in the mirror that hung on the wall in the front hallway. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her face was scrubbed clean. She was wearing sweats and a T-shirt that had been swag from the Valentine’s Day Single’s week. Her T-shirt was tied in the back revealing a sliver of her stomach and her extra-large sweats were so baggy they were being held up solely by the drawstring.
If Glenn Maguire was her new tenant, she was going to kill Grace for not giving her a heads up so she could look presentable.
As she was walking out of the house, a third possibility of what Glenn was doing in her driveway occurred to her when she remembered that Glenn’s cousin Amy lived next door. Maybe he’d mistaken her house for Amy’s.
The thought that he wasn’t here because of her or because he was going to be her tenant was much more depressing than it should be.
* * *
Glenn shutthe door after Bree hopped out and was about to text Grace, the real estate agent he’d dealt with, that he was here when he heard his daughter yell excitedly, “Miss Vivien!”
He lifted his head and sure enough Vivien Wells was walking down the steps of the porch. Glenn’s heart slammed into his chest like a crash dummy against a wall. He’d seen her yesterday, but somehow in twenty-four hours, she’d managed to become even sexier.
It’s not like she was trying. It was just he’d always had a thing for a woman stripped down. Not naked. Although he definitely had a thing for that, too. Just the thought of Vivien in the buff had his balls tightening with need. But what he was talking about was the no makeup, hair up, in sweats look. He thought a woman was always the most beautiful in her most natural, relaxed form. And that’s exactly how Vivien looked.
Her long hair was pulled back off of her face in a ponytail and the style accentuated the slim slope of her neck. The T-shirt that she wore was bunched up around her waist and she had on oversized black sweats. In his book, she looked sexier than any Victoria’s Secret model strutting down the runway or a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model posing on a beach.
“Hello, Miss Bree!” Viv greeted his daughter then her eyes lifted to meet his. The moment her blue-eyed stare locked with his he lost the ability to breath. It felt like a punch to the gut. And as a boxer he’d taken plenty of those. “Hi Gabe’s brother Glenn.”
“Hi. I’m here to meet Grace.” He was proud of himself for even remembering the other woman’s name since it seemed no one else existed whenever he was near the woman standing in front of him.
A wide smile spread on Vivien’s face, wider than the grins he’d seen so far and the heavens opened as angels sang the Hallelujah chorus. Her smile proved there was a God. Her smile was a religious experience.
Fuck.He was really losing it. This woman had an effect on him like no other and he needed to get his shit together. Which meant he needed to stay the hell away from Vivien Wells. This woman was his kryptonite and he was no Superman.
“Grace is my sister. Are you here about the backhouse?”
Glenn nodded as his heart pounded wildly in his chest. Or at least he thought it was his heartbeat. It was that or horses stampeding.
“Are you going to live with us, Miss Viv?!” Bree clapped her hands together.
Glenn was clearly not in his right mind, but he thought he detected a slight blush creep up on Viv’s cheeks. From the short time he’d spent with the redheaded bombshell, she didn’t strike him as someone who blushed easily. The sight only served to make her more adorable, more approachable, and somehow even more attractive, which he would have deemed impossible if he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes.
“Um, no, I live here, and you guys are going to live back there.” Viv pointed down the driveway to a small structure that was a mirror image, just smaller, of the main house. “Do you want to see?”
“Yes!” Bree exclaimed excitedly. “Can we see, Daddy?”
“Yep.”
How in the actual fuck was Glenn going to keep his distance from this sexy siren if she was living across the yard from him and working across the street? He was only a man, not a machine.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Bree reached up and grabbed Viv’s hand. She took it naturally and he told himself it didn’t mean anything. Bree had always been very friendly and she loved everyone. That was one of the reasons he’d decided not to date. She got attached to people. Even as a baby.
During the first year of Bree’s life it was all he could do to take care of the baby and get himself to work. But when she was around eighteen months, things started getting a little bit easier. Then when Bree was two, he met Monique. He’d noticed her because she resembled Kate Hudson. In fact, at first glance, he’d thought it was Kate Hudson. But when he did a double take, he realized he was wrong. Monique was at the park with her Yorkie and Glenn had been there with Bree. The two started talking and she asked if he wanted to come over with Bree sometime and she’d make them dinner.
To be honest, Glenn had missed interactions with the opposite sex, so he’d taken her up on it. They’d started dating and had been together until Zoe came back into the picture. Monique didn’t agree with his decision to let Bree see Zoe and felt she should have a say in what he did. She’d basically given him an ultimatum, if he allowed Zoe back into their lives, she was out. It wasn’t a difficult decision, for him at least.
After he and Monique broke up, Bree had asked about her on a daily basis for more than a year. He’d seen that even though he hadn’t lived with Monique, and Bree was still young, she’d gotten used to her being in their lives.
He’d made the decision then that he wasn’t going to date until she left for college.
It hadn’t actually been as hard to stick to as he’d thought it would be. Until now.
